No beach this weekend

I hate to disappoint my kids, but when I saw this tonight …

… I knew I was about to.

We have spent the majority of the past three months on the road but have yet to visit that ultimate summer destination … the beach. This was going to be that weekend. We were heading to Wilmington to visit my sister, whom we haven’t seen since Easter.

The kids have been so excited. Every day this week when I’ve picked them up from day care, they’ve asked if this was the day we were going to see Aunt Katie.

“On Saturday,” I promised.

The plan was to leave tomorrow morning, right after Cera’s 9 a.m. soccer tryouts. We were going to pack the cooler with sandwiches, swing by Katie’s condo and pick her up, and then head to Wrightsville Beach to swim and play in the sand until the sun went down.

But this afternoon, Katie called to warn me about predicted rainfall.

I figured we’d still make the trip – after all, if it rained as often as meteorologists forecast, we certainly wouldn’t still be experiencing drought-like conditions.

But just in case, I checked the Wilmington Star’s Web site when I got home from work tonight. And I saw the map above with the following headline: “Storm could become a tropical depression.”

So even if we were lucky enough to get a few hours of sunshine to spend on the beach, chances are we would encounter high winds and rough waters. Jerry and I conferred and decided to push the trip to another weekend.

My sister was upset but understanding. She misses her niece and nephew (and her sister, too, I hope because I certainly miss her).

Cera was teary-eyed as I put her to bed.

And Anthony … well, I figure the worst with him is still to come when he wakes up in the morning and realizes that we’re not going to the beach.

So Jerry and I are scrambling to put together a fun agenda for the weekend. While we road-weary parents would love nothing better than to sleep late and get some much needed work done around the house, we’re thinking museums tomorrow and, if weather permits, the pool on Sunday.